550 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIII, 



record west of the Perso-Baluch frontier. There appears to me 

 no doubt that it occurs in Ceylon, though Boulenger* does not 

 mention this locality, and Willeyt does not include it among the 

 ophifauna of that island. Ferguson J, however, says "of specimens 

 sent to he named by Dr. Gunther, he is returning one named Dipsas 

 trigonata, Boie." It is possible that like Echis it may be confined 

 to the north-eastern part of the island. Were it universally dis- 

 tributed one would expect the Colombo Museum to have repre- 

 sentatives on their shelves. The specimen referred to by Fer- 

 guson has been apparently lost sight of. 



(b) Local. — It appears to be essentially arboreal in habit, frequent- 

 ing bushes, scrub, or trees usually in close proximity to the ground, 

 though it will climb to considerable elevations at times. I have 

 frequently come across its sloughs low down in lantana and simi- 

 lar tangled vegetation. It often descends to the ground, and I have 

 several times met with it at night in the open, on the road, or a 

 garden path. At this time it always appeared to be on the move, but 

 I have had several examples brought to me found coiled up on the 

 ground beneath a bush during the day time apparently asleep. 



In bushes it coils itself into a little heap, unlike the tree snakes of 

 other genera which recline with the body extended in graceful 

 curves distributing their weight on many points, unless they are 

 actually resting in their major or full length along a suitable branch. 



In this Journal § Nurse reports having frequently seen it in 



Guzerat, where it appears to be very abundant, curled up on the top 



of cactus hedges. 



It sometimes takes up its abode (perhaps for the deposition of eggs) 



in a hole in a tree trunk, and in one instance one had evidently 

 recently tenanted a crypt in the crevices of a wall, as its slough was 

 seen partly issuing from a hole in the face of the brickwork. 



After the foregoing observations it will appear remarkable that 

 such a creature can adapt itself completely to a desert environment, 

 but such is undoubtedly the case, for Blanford || records one from 

 Gwadar in Baluchistan which he says is merely a fishing village on a 

 barren spit of sand between a rocky promontory and the mainland 

 where there is not a single tree and scarcely a bush to be found. 



* Spol. Zey Ian., April 190(3,233. f Cat. Vol. Ill, I8y6, p. 63. 



% Reptile Fauna of Ceylon, 1877, p. 21. § Vol. XIII, p. 340. 



]| Jourl., Asiatic. Soc, Bengal,Vol. XL VIII, p. 13). 



